


Trust

by starryeyedchar



Series: Voltron Whump Week [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Injury, M/M, Major Character Injury, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 04:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11821605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedchar/pseuds/starryeyedchar
Summary: A groan sounded to Keith's left, and he looked over immediately, trying to mask his relief with a glare. “Oh, good. He finally decided to wake up.”“Hey, how many times do I have to tell you? Beauty sleep is important.” A pause. “Where are we again?”Pidge snorted. “Guess that general hit him harder than we thought.”Or the one where Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Keith are captured by Lotor, and he decided that Haggar should try and get information out of them. This doesn't go to well for the paladins, particularly Lance.For Day Four of Whump Week- Torture.





	Trust

A groan sounded to Keith's left, and he looked over immediately, trying to mask his relief with a glare. “Oh, good. He finally decided to wake up.”

“Hey, how many times do I have to tell you? Beauty sleep is important.” A pause. “Where are we again?”

Pidge snorted. “Guess that general hit him harder than we thought.”

“Lance! You're okay! I was worried— that totally knocked you out, you hadn't moved in a while,” Hunk rambled. “Does your head hurt?”

“Like hell,” Lance said, leaning back against the wall and pressing a hand to his forehead. “But nothing too serious. Thankfully, now that I'm conscious, I remember what happened. We've been captured, haven't we?”

“It's fine,” Keith insisted, though his voice was tight. “Shiro and Allura must've realized we're gone by now. They'll come to get us.”

“Jeez,” Lance collapsed onto the floor and stared up at the ceiling. “They really are like our space parents, aren't they? Can't leave us alone for ten seconds, or we'll get in trouble.”

“But what if they don't find us soon?” Hunk wondered, hugging his knees to his chest. “Who knows what the Galra will do to us in here?”

The question sobered everyone up a bit. They'd heard directly from the Blade how cruelly the Galra Empire treated its prisoners.

“Well... Keith, you're our fearless leader. What should we do?” Lance asked. Where he expected to find mockery, Keith was surprised to find that Lance was earnestly trusting his judgement.

Keith looked around, once again coming to the conclusion that these cells were well constructed. The room had been divided into quarters with sturdy, clear walls. They could all see and hear each other, but there was no apparent way out.

He steeled his nerves, and met the eyes of his team. “The best thing we can do for now is to sit tight. From what I can tell, there's not really an opening for escape. At least, not yet. Shiro and Allura will be able to bust us out using Blue and the Castle, but until then we wait for the Galra to make the next move.”

“You're kidding,” Pidge looked at the three of them, disbelief written all over her face. “He's kidding, right?”

“We... we can't just wait here like sitting ducks! The Galra... they'll try to get information out of us, right? That's how it always goes in the movies. What if I summon my bayard, and—”

“They confiscated our bayards, genius,” Pidge reminded him. Hunk deflated.

“Oh. Right.”

“Both of you, calm down. Keith's right.” Lance gave them all a weary grin. “There's nothing we can do right now. And if they do try to talk to us, we're not telling them anything. Besides, how long did it take for us to get Allura back? Less than a day? What's the worst they could do to us in a day?”

Keith smiled gratefully at him. Lance was always good in a crisis.

Just as he thought this, the blue paladin's cell went dark. Keith launched to his feet, looking around. The wall connected to Lance's room had gone pitch black, but he could see Hunk and Pidge perfectly clearly. Based on the tense and terrified expressions of the other two, Keith guessed they couldn't see Lance either.

“Uh, guys? Why can't I see you anymore?” Lance's voice shook slightly at the end. “All the walls are suddenly just... dark.”

“We can't see you either,” Hunk told him. “What's going on?!”

“Lance, what's happening in there? Are you okay?” Keith demanded, pressing his hands against the wall.

“I'm fine, but... I think there's someone coming into my cell? Some lady in a cloak, with a hood? I can't see her face.”

“ _Haggar_?!” Pidge was on her feet now, too.”But... she's working with Lotor now? I thought she was dead!”

“Apparently not,” Lance said weakly, and then continued louder. “What do you want with us?”

“Paladins of Voltron.” Her voice was scratchy, sending chills down Keith's spine. “Where is the Altean princess?”

“Wh— Allura? Why do you want to know where _Allura_ is?” Lance sounded more confused than afraid, which didn't exactly make Keith feel better, considering the circumstances.

“Lance,” Pidge warned. “Remember, we're not telling her anything.”

“Where is the Altean princess, and her ship?” Haggar repeated. “And the black paladin? If you tell me Voltron's weakness, I will spare your lives.”

Lance let out a laugh, but Keith could hear the nervousness buried underneath it. “Look, lady, I don't know any of that stuff. And even if I did, I sure as _hell_ wouldn't tell you. I _can_ tell you, though, that Voltron doesn't have a weakness. So, you know, maybe you and Prince L'Oreal had better just give up.”

There was a beat of silence. Keith could hear the faint buzz of electricity.

And then Lance was screaming.

Lance was known for being loud very often. In fact, he was nearly always shouting about something or other. He just talked at a volume above the average person. It had annoyed Keith at first, but now it was more of an endearing trait. He could differentiate the sounds from when Lance was outraged, amused, or genuinely scared.

But this was _nothing_ like that.

This scream didn't even consist of any words. It was just a long, drawn out noise of pure _pain_. Lance sounded like he was being burned alive, or torn apart from the inside out. Keith never wanted to hear that noise again.

And it didn't stop.

Pidge had moved to the corner farthest from Lance's cell, and curled up into a ball. Her face was buried in her knees, and she trembled from head to toe. Hunk was yelling something as he stood, hands shaking and covering his ears. Keith couldn't hear him, could barely see. Everything around him was white noise except the pulse in his ears that seemed to scream _Lance. He had to get to Lance_ . Keith punched and kicked at the wall separating them, but it was no use.

It felt like an eternity before the screaming stopped, but it was probably only a few minutes.

When it did, the raspy voice of the witch took it place. “I will return shortly to continue where we left off. Think carefully about whether you still want to keep information from me.” And then, with the sound of the doors closing, they could see Lance again.

He was curled in on himself, trembling from head to toe. His face was turned toward the wall, not looking at any of them. Keith could see a touch of blood in his hair from where he'd been hit in the head earlier. Lance was still in full paladin armor, but that had done little to protect him from what was undoubtedly a blast of Druid magic. Parts of it were badly burned from... whatever it was that Haggar had done to him.

Keith couldn't even find it in himself to be relieved. Sure, Lance was still breathing, but just seeing the state he was in felt... wrong. If anything, the visual coming back only succeeded to make him more worried, and definitely more furious.

“Lance...?” Hunk's voice was quiet, terrified. Lance flinched, but still didn't turn to look at them. “What... what did she  _do_ to you?”

He said nothing.

“Druid magic,” Pidge whispered. “I've seen it, but never when someone's hit with it directly... she must've been doing it continuously, which had to be... excruciatingly painful. In addition to that, it can make you see stuff that isn't really there. Shiro told me Haggar somehow knew what he was afraid of so... Lance, are you okay?”

Keith would've laughed at the question under different circumstances. Of  _course_ Lance wasn't okay. Anyone who looked at him could immediately see that, not to mention that the three of them had head his screaming.

He shuddered. Those screams would be haunting Keith's dreams in the future, he was sure.

“Keith,” Hunk's voice was broken as he looked at his best friend, still curled up on the floor. “We have to to tell her. We're not putting Lance through that again, and now that we know what it does, we can't let her do that to the rest of us. What's the harm of answering a few questions, right?”

Pidge's stood, expression unreadable, and Keith thought for a moment that she'd disagree. But then—

“He's right,” she said firmly. “Shiro and Allura will understand, they won't want us to get hurt. We should just cooperate until the others find us. If necessary, we can give fake information to stall.”

Keith nodded. What she said made sense, even if it was also making Keith feel uneasy, the idea of just... giving in. But there was no way in hell he was going to let Lance go through that again, or make Pidge and Hunk suffer, too. He opened his mouth, resignation ready on his lips, but someone else spoke.

“No.” The voice was wavering, raspy, and most decidedly  _not okay_ , but it was still Lance's voice. And that was enough to make Keith listen.

He sat up slowly, turning to look at them on still shaking limbs. His nose was bleeding, and he grimaced with the effort it took just to move.

“No,” he repeated. “We can't do that. I won't let you.”

Hunk let out a choked sob. “Lance, come on. We're... we're not going to just sit here and get  _tortured._ If we just tell them what they want to know—”

“There's no telling they'd even let us go. This is Lotor we're talking about, and we're the  _only thing_ standing between him and universal domination. Do you really think he'll go easy on us just because we give him what he wants?” Lance asked, and the three of them were silent. “And if we gave them  _fake_ information, they'd just figure out we were lying and then hurt us  _more_ . Our best option is not to say anything.”

“Lance,  _please_ ,” Hunk begged, wringing his hands. “Think about what you're saying! Are you really suggesting we let Haggar do...  _that_ again?”

“It's because it's you, isn't it?” Pidge asked, jaw clenched, before turning to Keith. “If it were anyone else, he'd be saying exactly the same thing. But because he's the only one getting tortured, he doesn't have a problem with it.”

Keith didn't say anything. He wasn't sure he'd be able to.

“Did you guys forget what we said when we came in here?” Lance looked around at them all. “We're not telling them  _anything_ , no matter what. Whatever happens while we're here we've got to wait for Allura, Shiro, and Coran, right? So we can't give in. We're the defenders of the universe, damn it. We've gotta be strong, because that's our job.”

Pidge glared at him. “Keith, ignore him. His head's probably all messed up with pain, and... whatever Haggar made him see. We're not letting that happen again, to  _any_ of us.”

“ _No_ ,” Lance insisted. “I can take it.  _We_ can take it, because we're a team, and the others will come through. We've just got to bear it a little longer.”

“Lance, shut up,” Pidge snapped.

“Pidge is right, you don't know what you're saying,” Hunk agreed, tears still welling up in his eyes. “We just tell them what they want to hear, and then maybe—”

“Keith,  _trust me_ ,” Lance's voice was sure, not faltering in the slightest. It drew Keith's eyes to him, and Lance flashed him one of his winning smiles, still brighter than any sun, if a little rough around the edges. “We  _are_ a good team, aren't we?”

And the look on his face was exactly the same, and it brought Keith right back to that day with Sendak in the castle, when the bomb went off, and Lance could've died, but he was okay, and there,  _and smiling at Keith like he wasn't badly injured and—_

Keith took a deep breath. “I trust you.”

“No, Keith, we can't! They could kill him—”

“Are you  _crazy_ ? When Haggar comes back—”

The others' protests filled his ears, and Keith  _hated_ being the leader for this reason. Even if Shiro was back, Keith was the pilot of the Black Lion now, which made him the leader. Keith had never been good with people, good at being in charge. Every time he tried to make a decision, it felt like one or more of the others always disagreed with him. Shiro disagreed with him the most, which felt slightly ironic to Keith, as he was the one who put him in charge in the first place. Lance, oddly enough, was the only one who was consistently on his side.

_Lance_ .

Keith turned to look at him, to find that he was still smiling. Somehow, that made it just a little bit worth it.

But he found himself already regretting his decision when Lance's cell went dark again, and was on his feet before he even fully processed the thought. He didn't know how much more of this Lance could take. Hell, Keith didn't know how much more of this  _he_ could take.

“Have you decided to tell us what we wish to know?”

“No,” Lance said firmly, before the others could speak. “We're not telling you anything.”

There was another scream from Lance, but it stopped just as quickly as it began. Now that he thought of it, he'd sounded more surprised than in pain. A crash sounded, followed by a buzz of electricity, and Keith prepared to cover his ears so he wouldn't have to hear it. But the voice shouting was from Haggar, not Lance. There was a strange noise, like a rush of air, and then they could see again.

Lance sat pressed up against the wall, chest heaving as he stared across the cell in shock. Allura stood there in full paladin armor, glowing energy of her own sparking around her. She smirked, and offered Lance a hand. He took it, returning the grin.

The pink paladin jerked a thumb behind her, pointing out the door. “Your ride is here.”

Lance's eyes widened, looking in disbelief at something none of the other three could see. “Blue.” His voice was barely a whisper.

Allura nodded, smiling brightly. “You may be Red's pilot now, but Blue's connection with you was strong enough that when you were in danger, she was able to lead us right here. That combined with the other lions being here, and it was pretty easy to find you.”

The walls between the four of them disappeared, and Allura's grin widened. “Right on time.” She handed each of them their bayards. “You should probably get to your lions. According to Blue, they've all been going crazy in the hangar the Galra have them in.  _Especially_ Red. I wouldn't want them to blow this ship up with us still on it.”

Lance wobbled slightly as he stood, but nodded anyway, that reckless determination that Keith was beginning to recognize evident in his eyes. Keith grabbed his arm before he could leave.

“Are... are you sure you're okay?” He cringed because, again, obviously he wasn't. “What did she make you see?”

A slow, soft smile spread over Lance's face.

Keith tensed when he didn't say anything, growing uncomfortable under his gaze. “What is it?”

Lance shook his head. “Nothing.” His eyes gleamed. “Just realized that I'm totally in love with you. I'm pretty sure Haggar knows now, so I figured I'd tell you before you hear it from her. Uh... race you to the lions!” With that said, he ran from the room at a speed that should've been impossible for someone who'd just endured what he had. But Keith had learned not to underestimate Lance McClain ages ago.

Even so, Lance continued to surprise him.

Keith was frozen in shock for a moment. He registered that Hunk, Pidge, and Allura all looked completely unfazed. Had  _everyone_ known about this before him?

“You can't just—  _Lance_ !” Keith yelled, chasing after him. “You didn't even let me tell you—  _wait for me, you quiznaking idiot_ !”

It was pretty easy to catch up to Lance, as the Cuban boy was still slightly unsteady on his feet, let alone exhausted. Keith tackled him to the floor, and promptly kissed Lance before he could say something to ruin their bonding moment.

They didn't break apart until they heard Pidge's snort from behind them. “About time. How about we get out of here? You two can make out all you want once we've escaped from this hellhole.

Keith's face felt like his face was on fire, but Lance just grinned. “Sounds good to me."

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is longer than my usual one-shots, and I'm actually really proud of it? It took,,, so long for me to finally get it right but I'm happy with how it turned out!
> 
> No, you don't get to find out exactly what Lance saw, but I did that on purpose. This is Keith-centric, as you probably noticed, even if I'm whumping Lance, because it focuses on how Keith sees Lance. Lance probably wouldn't tell the others what he saw, knowing him, but he also recovers pretty quickly (or at least tries to seem like he did, you know?).
> 
> BUT! Everything's fine, Keith and Lance are together, and they can put that whole experience behind them. (I'm sorry, just wanted to explain why I did that).


End file.
